Caption: 
SwRI is developing the solar wind plasma sensor (SWiPS) for the SWFO-L1 space weather satellite, which will orbit the Sun at approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It will provide early warning measurements of the Sun’s impact on the geomagnetic environment of the Earth. SWiPS will measure how the solar wind plasma affects processes that transfer energy and particles into the Earth’s magnetosphere, often initiating geomagnetic storms. 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Steele Hill/NASA 